Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Christmas Shopping Season

It's that time of year again! You know, where we celebrate Christmas with some good ol' fashioned shopping. Its barely time for Halloween to be over and the Christmas shopping season is in full swing. Christmas carols are playing, merchandise is out and designed for the "i want everything" shopper.

Stores are lightly decorated to appear as if they are Christmas, but not enough to really make them look nice. After all, we don't want to spend much on Christmas decorations. We just want people to buy stuff. The Black Friday specials are already being announced and almost launched. In fact, some stores report they are going to open them up early. Really, who needs the Thanksgiving holiday to get in the way.

Of course, you have the people that claim there is a reason for the season and how awful it is that we take Christ out of Christmas. Yet these very same people are the ones beating the other shoppers down as they grab the latest and greatest toys and gadgets. They talk the talk, but they don't walk the talk!

In reality, it seems pretty silly, but then who again really lives in reality these days. We hide from it and manipulate it into a fantasy world. Christmas, Black Friday and the holiday shopping season is no exception. It is this way every year and it seems to only get worse with each year that passes.

We're told to that if we don't buy a lot of stuff at Christmas, these stores will not make it. Yet, if you watch the people walking out of the store with an armful of merchandise, one has to wonder if this is really needed. How many things given at Christmas time end up in a spare room or closet only to be gone through and sold at the next garage sale or donated to a thrift store. All you have to do is walk into a thrift store in the months following Christmas and you'll find your answer.

Sure, people want to buy gifts and give them to significant people in their lives. The only thing is that we go overboard in our society and consume so much debt in this time of the year. We tend to buy "love" through the presents, even though most likely we would say we don't do this. We stress out over what to buy someone and if they will like it. It leaves us feeling stressed out and full of worry and anxiety as we navigate the next month before Santa comes.

I wish as a society, we could do things in moderation. Instead of stress and debt during this time of the year, I wish we could find peace in our own life so we can spread it to the world. For what we hold within our own life, is what we have to offer the rest of the world. Christmas is not about seeing how much you can buy. It is about celebrating peace on earth and goodwill towards men. How about we try to that for a change, rather than treating it as just a Christmas shopping season.